8-Year-Old Guatemalan Boy Dies in U.S. Custody on Christmas, Weeks After 7-Year-Old Girl's Death

An 8-year-old boy from Guatemala who was in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody died on Christmas, the agency announced in a news release on Tuesday.

On Monday, the boy and his father were taken to the Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center in Alamogordo, New Mexico, after a border patrol agent observed that the boy was sick.

“The child was initially diagnosed by hospital staff with a common cold, and when evaluated for release, hospital staff found a fever,” the news release said. “The child was held for an additional 90 minutes for observation and then released from the hospital mid-afternoon on December 24 with prescriptions for amoxicillin and Ibuprofen.”

On Monday evening, the boy was nauseous and vomited. He returned to the medical center, where he died after midnight. The news release said that the boy’s cause of death is not known.

The death of the boy comes the same month as the death of Jakelin Caal Maquin, a 7-year-old Guatemalan girl who also died in U.S. custody, according to The New York Times.

Jakelin and her father Nery Gilberto Caal Cuz were taken into custody on Dec. 6 after crossing the border into New Mexico. She died in the hospital on Dec. 8.

“Despite our trained EMT agents’ best efforts fighting for Jakelin’s life, and the work of the Hidalgo County and Providence Children’s Hospital medical teams treating her, we were unable to rescue her,” CBP Commissioner Kevin K. McAleenan said in a statement.